A common problem in the production of optoelectronic components is their encapsulation for protection against environmental influences. With normal encapsulation techniques, pinholes or defects in the encapsulating layer still arise, which lead to leaks. By way of example, air humidity from the environment can penetrate through these leaks to the optoelectronic component and can destroy it over time.
By way of example, the optoelectronic component may be an organic light-emitting diode (OLED). An OLED may for example comprise the following layer sequence: an anode, a cathode and a radiation-emitting layer arranged between the two. In this case, the radiation-emitting layer can comprise an organic material. The holes which are emitted from the anode during operation recombine with the electrons emitted from the cathode in the radiation-emitting layer. The energy released by recombination can cause molecules in the radiation-emitting layer to emit radiation. The OLED is an optoelectronic electroluminescent component. By way of example, an OLED may have the following further layers: a hole-inducing layer, a hole-transporting layer, an electron-transporting layer and/or an electron-inducing layer. The optoelectronic components may also be other forms of electroluminescent components, as well as components which are not electroluminescent.
The problem is currently solved by a housing covering the optoelectronic component and by the space between the component and the housing also containing a getter. A getter is a material which absorbs or adsorbs disturbing substances, for example water from the air humidity, penetrating from the outside. Problems with this housing technique are that the points at which the housing is connected to the carrier substrate can not as yet be adequately sealed, which therefore leads, for example, to the ingress of air humidity. Furthermore, this technique is very complex and costly. In addition, the getter has only a limited capacity, after which it is saturated and cannot absorb any more substances. For cost reasons, this method is not feasible, in particular for large-area optoelectronic components. According to an embodiment of the invention, a “large-area” optoelectronic component means an optoelectronic component whose area is greater than or equal to 3 mm2. It is also difficult to produce very thin optoelectronic components by this method.